One of the most dramatic phases of fetal development occurs as previously unstructured collections of rapidly dividing precursor cells begin forming the embryo's spine. When this process goes well, it ...

Stimulation in a brain region linked to alertness helps deaf rats with inner-ear implants learn to recognize tunes in just days. The finding could explain why cochlear implants work almost immediately ...

How cells shape complex tissues and organs during embryo development, which makes us what we are, has many mysteries. New research has examined one such process which leads to the formation of ...

It's no small feat to create a spinal column. In humans, 33 interlocking bones must come together to protect the spinal cord. These vertebrae are interconnected and have delicate attachments to ...

According to multiple studies, one in three pregnancies results in miscarriage, and one in 33 babies that are born will have a birth defect, due to the embryo forming incorrectly in the womb. Studying ...

Scientists have officially grown a notochord—the tissues that act as the “GPS for the developing embryo” by guiding the formation of the spine and nervous system. Previous attempts to create a ...

Scientists are exploring ways to mimic the origins of human life without two fundamental components: sperm and egg. They are coaxing clusters of stem cells – programmable cells that can transform into ...

Janet Rossant is president of the Gairdner Foundation, and senior scientist emeritus at The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. The first few weeks of a human embryo’s ...

Those discs that form the spine originate in embryonic blueprint segments called somites. As the embryo body elongates in all vertebrate species, it is cut into somites by a “biological clock knife.” ...